The Wizard of Oz lives on

stephen says:

12:23pm | 07/10/09

Seen the movie - won’t bother with the’incredible interview’ - and it’s a charming film for young and old. (See it right after National Velvet.)

stephen says:

08:59pm | 09/10/09

Here’s another one for the little’uns (and oldies) : a terrific animated creation called SNOWMAN (1982). See it BEFORE National Velvet.

Larry Houghton says:

01:00pm | 10/10/09

The Wizard of Oz was first published by Frank Baum in 1900 and was called the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It was a monetary allegory.  “The Wizard of Oz” . . . was written at a time when American society was consumed by the debate over the “financial question,” that is, the creation and circulation of money. . . . The characters of “The Wizard of Oz” represented those deeply
involved in the debate: the Scarecrow as the farmers, the Tin Woodman as the industrial workers, the Lion as silver advocate William Jennings Bryan and Dorothy as the archetypal American girl.
Since the Greenbackers’ push for government-issued paper money
had failed, Bryan and the “Silverites” proposed solving the liquidity
problem in another way. The money supply could be supplemented
with coins made of silver, a precious metal that was cheaper and more
readily available than gold. Silver was considered to be “the money of
the Constitution.” The Constitution referred only to the “dollar,” but
the dollar was understood to be a reference to the Spanish milled silver
dollar coin then in common use. The slogan of the Silverites was “16
to 1”: 16 ounces of silver would be the monetary equivalent of 1 ounce
of gold. Ounces is abbreviated oz, hence “Oz.” The Wizard of the
Gold Ounce (Oz) in Washington was identified by later commentators
as Marcus Hanna, the power behind the Republican Party, who
controlled the mechanisms of finance in the administration of President
William McKinley.(Karl Rove, political adviser to President George
Bush Jr., reportedly took Hanna for a role model.)
Frank Baum, the journalist who turned the politics of his day into
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, marched with the Populist Party in
support of Bryan in 1896. Baum is said to have had a deep distrust of
big-city financiers; but when his dry goods business failed, he bought
a Republican newspaper, which had to have a Republican message to
retain its readership. That may have been why the Populist message
was so deeply buried in symbolism in his famous fairytale. Like Lewis
Carroll, who began his career writing uninspiring tracts about
mathematics and politics and wound up satirizing Victorian society
in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Baum was able to suggest in a
children’s story what he could not say in his editorials. His book
contained many subtle allusions to the political and financial issues of
the day. The story’s inspirational message was a product of the times
as well.
I thought this interesting it is an extract from a book by Ellen Brown called Web of Debt. Not many people realize where the Oz comes from in the Wizard of Oz.

Bonez says:

10:45am | 15/10/09

Larry, now that was an interesting read!  Makes since when you think about it, as the “Wonderful Wizard of Oz” can fix anything, whether it’s the brain’s behind farming, or the heart of industry, or even a trip home, all it takes (took) is a bit of courage to get it all going.  Nice.

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03:47am | 18/12/09

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